So I built a Death Star surface to play on.

I like the game well enough, but my primary opponent is nine years old and needed a little extra inspiration to really get into the game. After some discussion and thought, we got to work and built something fun.

I bought a few sheets of 1/8" hardboard and started cutting and gluing and, eventually, painting.

Just the Surface

The full board measures 3x3, but was constructed in two pieces so that we can eventually add a trench in the middle for some added variety. The square pieces with the big holes are designed to have towers placed on them. The smaller holes can eventually be used to mount other objectives/things - power nodes, comms towers, whatever.

With Towers

The towers come from Fight's On! I think they're great. Great size, great price, good detail, excellent service. The top of the turret spins and comes off, so they can be mounted with a little variety (the holes in the tower mounts are to accommodate the turret peg when used without the full tower).

Low View

I'm not sure that it's finished, yet. I kind of want to add some additional low-profile surface detail (even something as simple as metal washers, wires, and other unobtrusive greebling and maybe some highlighting or a darker wash) but it's been a lot of work, and it still hasn't even been played on, yet.

Interceptors Flying CAP

The scaling works pretty well. I think it gets the idea across well enough to be a suitable Death Star (the inevitable addition of a trench will only help) while being generic enough to function as any sort of large station kind of thing.

Being constructed of hardboard allows it to overhang my slightly too narrow dining room table, which is a plus.

Close up Interceptor/Tower

Despite my churlish and amateur painting skills (it's been a LONG time since I've painted anything, and this is my first experiment with doing a wash - I was always a drybrushing highlights sort of guy) I really like the detailing of the towers. They do come off looking a little more tarnished and weathered than a lot of Imperial equipment, so I guess this Death Star must have been around for a little while.

Straight on

Close up to demonstrate tower scale and detail.

Interceptor with Tower Head Only

And another to show the head-only style on the turret.

I can't help but be pretty proud of this technological terror I've constructed (from wood, glue, and paint) so I thought I'd show it off.

As I mentioned, I may yet start back up with greebling and detail work, but now that this is finished, I can't help but thinking that building a Star Destroyer board might be a LOT less time-intensive since it wouldn't need the same sort of surface detail...

So, like, what do you think? Aside from actually being played on, what does it need? What have I missed? I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on how to best put it to use.

The towers are awesome from Fight's On. I know the guy who runs it and he's a real good guy, a gamer himself. I also recommend it. I bought a pair of those towers but have never painted them yet. Maybe this summer I will finally get around to it.

That looks great! Perfect for death star or space station scenarios!

The towers are awesome from Fight's On. I know the guy who runs it and he's a real good guy, a gamer himself. I also recommend it. I bought a pair of those towers but have never painted them yet. Maybe this summer I will finally get around to it.

I was very impressed with the towers, especially at the price, but I was more impressed with his service, to be honest. In the concept stages, I bought three sets of towers before I had everything fully planned out. I (sort of accidentally) made spaces for eight towers (four sets) and I knew I would want more when I got around to the trench, so I went back and placed another order.

Soon after, he was emailing me asking about the progress on my Death Star and providing frequent updates to my order/shipping status (I ordered one more set than he had in stock, so there was a (very brief) delay).

Top notch service.

...And now that I think of it, I never did get around to emailing him those pictures... I guess now I can just send him a link here.

This thing is pretty incredible. Seriously, mad ups to you and yours.

I you don't want to house rule anything, just play the towers as obstacles, like asteroids. If you really want to have fun with it, there are rules for turbolasers and laser cannons in place.

Unfortunately, we don't know the rules for energy, but I'm sure you can figure something out. It'd be fun to give the Rebels a limited mission to carry out against your towers and fighter support, and not just limited to trench runs.

Agreed it looks great, I wouldn't be so quick to add more details. Those are just going to leave you with bumps and obstacles you'll have to try to work around during a game.. The flat surface will be much better. I may have to steal these plans for my own DS trench when I finally make it. I really like the look you have created here.

Thanks, guys!

Yeah, I was really excited when the official cards for Turbo Lasers were released! Very timely for finishing up the majority of the work, here. For energy, I figure I can kluge together something with Dagobah Dave's power nodes and what we know of cap ship energy. Should be a pretty decent fit, I think.

Agreed it looks great, I wouldn't be so quick to add more details. Those are just going to leave you with bumps and obstacles you'll have to try to work around during a game.. The flat surface will be much better. I may have to steal these plans for my own DS trench when I finally make it. I really like the look you have created here.

I've tinkered around with just placing different sized washers on the surface. It does a surprisingly good job of adding some extra texture/color/interest without being thick enough to really interfere with ship bases and movement templates.

Ultimately, I think you're right and "less is more" but I still want to do a little tinkering, at some point, just to see...

lol.. yeah, what modeler doesn't.. just a touch up here, maybe another wash to make it pop... been there many times myself...

Rather than raised features try recessed ones. Sized such that a small base can't fit in the gap.

This is awesome. Great job man!

Rather than raised features try recessed ones. Sized such that a small base can't fit in the gap.

Seems like that would have had to be planned out much earlier in the project. I'd thought about it, at the time, but I really just wanted to get in and get working on it and nothing I came up with felt both right and stable.

I wouldn't want to fill in the channels, but I suppose I could bust out the dremel...

That's no moon...

this is amazing. One of the best I have seen. I would love to make one similar to this myself. Make sure you post pics here when you get the trench finished.

Great Stuff!

Great start! I own one of these and I think it's a must for all SW fans but to someone who has build the Death Star even more: Haynes owners workshop manual Death Star